Kantian ethical theory distinguishes three levels: First, that of a fundamental principle (the categorical imperative, formulated in three main ways in Kant's… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We can never prove that we are free or integrate our freedom in any way into our objective conception of the causal… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Adam Smith was aware of the way that economic interests could have a distorting and destructive effect both on the market and… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
What are we to think of the shortsightedness of the great mass of people who are content to do nothing about it,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Marx's own illusion was to think that the working class movement, which he devoted his life to creating and strengthening, would both… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
The moral law is simply the way we think our own freedom as self-determination. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Our procedures of deliberation are not ways of finding out independent moral truths but instead ways of "constructing" these truths, in the… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Marx is thought of as an implacable foe of capitalism. But go back and read the first section of the Communist Manifesto.… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It has taken me a long time to realize where I most disagree with Marx. His assessment of capitalism is far too… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is a culturally interesting (but also deeply depressing) fact that many religious claims seem to retain their emotional power for believers… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
When people think that moral problems can be solved by some simple strategy of calculation, that sets them up for ghastly overreaching.… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Karl Marx left it to others to find the way beyond capitalism to a higher form of society. He saw his role… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Virtues consist not only of acting in certain ways, but in ways of caring and feeling. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We are generally forced to choose one way or the other of distancing ourselves from Kant. I suppose I tend to choose… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Both Kant and Fichte thought of traditions of revealed religion as ways of symbolically (that is, with aesthetic emotional power) thinking about… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
The relation of the law to the self is only a helpful way of thinking about the law, that helps us better… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is absurd for anyone to think that Soviet "Marxism" is a correct application of the thought of Karl Marx. No doubt… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Since we cannot know too much about the long term effects of our particular lives, and since success and fame are not… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Being aware of truths about what is good or right or about what we ought to do is not the same as… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
For the utilitarian, there is a fact of the matter about the good (the general happiness, or whatever conception of the good the utilitarian… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
No theory about our bodies as mere objects of observation and calculation (as distinct from partners in communicative interaction, assumed to be free) can… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kantian ethical theory distinguishes three levels: First, that of a fundamental principle (the categorical imperative, formulated in three main ways in Kant's Groundwork); second,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Some empirical feelings, such as sympathy, are indispensable parts of certain moral virtues. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We commit not only theoretical error but also moral wrong in objectifying ourselves or other rational beings, ignoring their capacities for free action and… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant certainly was sympathetic with the metaphysical tradition of rational theology that he criticized. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
That Hegel's theory is derivative from Fichte's does not prevent it from being strikingly original and of independent value. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is sad to witness the persistence in our society of the racism and xenophobia that seems to be a permanent part of our… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is rational to choose the right means to your ends to develop very elegant abstract formal theories of rational choice, and then turn… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We can never prove that we are free or integrate our freedom in any way into our objective conception of the causal order of… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant regards the universalizability test for maxims as focused on a very special sort of situation: one where the agent is tempted to make… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
My own view is that Kant's conception of the duality of the good (morality and happiness, the good of our person and the good… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
